I appreciate your perspectives, exposing some of the issues of decay in today's military. But as the old axiom goes, it would be better if every complaint, were accompanied with a possible solution.
Possible solutions probably exist, just beyond the scope of this essay about what you can do about your own fitness right now. Regardless of what the future holds, this will probably be helpful. Waiting for the release of a long treatise on the spiritual domain of warfare and how we may leverage it towards potential solutions so that I can share it. My takeaway is that we need a new Project Solarium. Very aligned with what Vivek has been espousing recently coincidentally enough.
I'll share the paper as here as soon as my friend publishes it somewhere. As for Vivek, this is a pretty good overview of his positions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpC6c6iYji8. I obviously don't endorse all of them, but I agree very much that some sort of broadly popular American identity needs to be clearly delineated and espoused. Doing this is a genuine fashion poses an existential threat to Globohomo though.
Agree on basic foundational capability, but easier said than done when our ruling class doesn't have the understanding nor the means to execute. Just another point regarding your first comment, I'm always trying to work towards solutions. If we're going to find anything it'll take dialogue, and I won't always posit my own recommended solutions if I don't have any that are particularly inspired.
Thanks! I think I'll try that plank variation, I actually know someone that is having some thoracic/rib dysfunction issues that is super sensitized that I could see this helping for.
I think there is ideological warfare going on. There are people trying to communicate the idea that being excellent is wrong, and being overweight is some sort of badge of honor. We see this education too, where some teachers and professors have stopped giving out grades. People need to fight this because it leads to a social decay.
It is something that is easier for males to contend with than females (hierarchy, that is). If there is excellence, some are, and some are not. Sometimes those who aren't can't do anything about it. This is just unacceptably sad for some people. Too sad to be true. Since our civilization has been feminized this deep concern has been amplified. I think the best way to understand this and the new dynamics we face is to listen to this discussion with Dr. Joyce Benenson as she discusses how women compete. You'll see exactly where the "being excellent is wrong" thing you mention comes from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4jKAgYL0gg
That's strange. I would have thought that physical fitness in the Army would consist of being able to carry 150 pounds of gear across a muddy battlefield, or up a hill, or across that valley.
In certain circumstances, being able to quickly use a lever to lift a jeep in order to change the tires or changing an engine.
I just assumed it also meant that you could fit your tired old body into the tank, jeep, or helicopter cockpit.
Yeah, it's complicated. Light infantry probably need to be able to do the 1st things you listed, but that's <10% of the force. It is also one of the more difficult physical capabilities required or service members. Someone who aces the new fitness test will almost assuredly be capable of handling whatever you throw at them, the previous test not so much. Some of my earliest articles here touched on that stuff. Bottom line is distance running has historically been the go to and it doesn't prep soldiers very well for modern combat (running specifically, low intensity cardio is always beneficial l, and if you're a good runner running is fine, just not enough by itself)
You're thinking of the first episode of Band of Brothers. Some people still do PT like that, but sedentary lifestyle makes it so this style of training is pretty injurious these days
That was part of where I got that idea, and a part of it was drawn from the basic fitness goals in the 80's, which the Army pushed for new recruits. We ran those in high school for two years. The push ups, the sit ups, the squats, chin ups, one mile run around the track.
None of that is bad except for the sit-ups. Speed sit-ups are objectively stupid to apply to large populations. Very few people for whom it is the best, or even a good choice.
If some are fitter than others, this speaks to a hierarchy embedded within nature itself, a notion antithetical to their religion. This is why MSNBC and Time Magazine articles have described fitness as “far-right” and rooted in “white supremacy.”
Respectfully dissent on this first point.
To start, I know too many ex-jocks from my high school days who are already buried. One who made the Olympics, but died from a fall down the stairs in his house. He had put on considerable weight, landed badly, and asphyxiated. Died his mid-40s. Prior to the fall, his issues did not include a lack of natural talent.
But that real-life example is trivial. What does it take to become fit and stay fit?
Hard work. Self-discipline. Self-control. A sense of personal responsibility. Some ability to delay gratification. Some ability to follow a plan or program, then modify the same based on results and desired goals, then independently design a plan to program to better achieve one’s goals based on the evidence and research.
Little of which boils down to natural athletic talent.
None of this superficially would seem to have anything to do with genetic differences – biological “racial” differences -- among humans. As someone who taught exclusively African students for nearly five years in West Africa, I have former students who demonstrated all of the above qualities and more. Nearly all of whom now make far money than I ever did, btw. I have some amazingly successful former students from about 14 different nations in Africa.
It would seem fitness -- like other accomplishments --remains open to people willing to work for it, and to educate themselves. So itwould seem.
Unfortunately, in the USA, we have heard from National Museum of African American History & Culture that individualism, self-reliance, hard work, objectivity, progress, delayed gratification, a belief in cause and effect relationships, et cetera, are ASPECTS & ASSUMPTIONS of WHITENESS: https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1283372233730203651
Since this list includes the qualities needed for a person to take charge of their own health and well-being, it follows (if one accepts such madness) that a commitment to Fitness is a commitment to Whiteness and hence White Supremacy.
What’s the real target here?
Let me be perverse and argue that it is NOT primarily white people.
The current understanding is that you must surrender control – which most certainly includes bodily autonomy -- to the corporate-state along with Big Pharma, Big Med, Big Food, and Big Tech, to start.
People who practice self-reliance, who take responsibility for their own health and fitness,
and who largely cut Big Gov-Pharma-Med-Food et alia out of the picture – these people are threatening. Now being characterized as borderline domestic terrorists. Why?
First, these people have minimalized the role of Big Gov-Pharma-Med-Food et alia in their own lives. Second, the obvious success of these people in terms of health and fitness calls deeply into the question – rebukes – the various and often failing mandates, prescription regimens, and black-box healthcare as usual.
The target is anyone who does not conform, does not demonstrate subservience, does not reduce themselves to near-absolute dependency on government and quasi-governmental authorities.
My comments above single out one small part of a thoughtful and important post. My apologies in advance for making a mountain of this molehill.
Agreed entirely. I look at attacks on "whiteness" to not be so much based on race, but upon characteristics that make individuals and/or groups who adhere to the principles you outline threatening to the regime. Put more simply "whiteness" is a proxy for self-determination which must be extirpated by purported egalitarians at all costs. There are two general groups that benefit from this attack, up and coming grifters and out of their depth and incompetent managerial elite.
To comment on another aspect of what you're saying, it is an excellent point that fitness over a lifespan is a very different thing than fitness in the here and now. In order to achieve ultimate combat fitness for the most physically demanding military jobs, lifespan health and fitness is necessarily sacrificed. This is why some sort of disability compensation mechanism is very difficult to get around. The subtext of what I'm saying at the end of this article is that striving after ultimate combat fitness as measured by ACFT is probably not worth the effort and risk to lifespan health and fitness since nobody cares about it anyway. I'll go further and say they can't afford to really value and incentivize high levels of performance in any organization with females present as this becomes inherently discriminatory. This is what the only significant group difference with respect to physical fitness from my perspective. They can talk all they want about objective standards, but there is enormous pressure that ensures such standards can never be enforced.
Beautifully stated: "Put more simply "whiteness" is a proxy for self-determination which must be extirpated by purported egalitarians at all costs. There are two general groups that benefit from this attack ... "
I meant that Grant Smith in the above makes several excellent points, and offers an outstanding insider critique. I in fact agree with him about the general denial of human nature. I'm singling out one minor claim about the MSM motives. and the White Supremacy deal.
I agree with you this is a larger attack on many of the key values and accomplishments of West Civ. I think Heather MacDonald has written wonderfully on this -- although Douglas Murray gets far more attention.
I appreciate your perspectives, exposing some of the issues of decay in today's military. But as the old axiom goes, it would be better if every complaint, were accompanied with a possible solution.
Keep striving for what is right.
Possible solutions probably exist, just beyond the scope of this essay about what you can do about your own fitness right now. Regardless of what the future holds, this will probably be helpful. Waiting for the release of a long treatise on the spiritual domain of warfare and how we may leverage it towards potential solutions so that I can share it. My takeaway is that we need a new Project Solarium. Very aligned with what Vivek has been espousing recently coincidentally enough.
I will have to read more about Project Solarium, and Ramaswamy's idea.
It would still be difficult to implement a grand strategy when the means to that end are physically and mentally inadequate though.
It would seem that there is a need for basic foundational capabilities to be restored.
I'll share the paper as here as soon as my friend publishes it somewhere. As for Vivek, this is a pretty good overview of his positions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpC6c6iYji8. I obviously don't endorse all of them, but I agree very much that some sort of broadly popular American identity needs to be clearly delineated and espoused. Doing this is a genuine fashion poses an existential threat to Globohomo though.
Agree on basic foundational capability, but easier said than done when our ruling class doesn't have the understanding nor the means to execute. Just another point regarding your first comment, I'm always trying to work towards solutions. If we're going to find anything it'll take dialogue, and I won't always posit my own recommended solutions if I don't have any that are particularly inspired.
Excellent article!
"Fitness Equity" is classic. I am stealing that one.
"Even if nobody else cares about your physical fitness, you can." And should, regardless of who you are.
I am a fan of Eric Goodman's work: A better plank: https://ftstreaming.com/programs/8-pt-plank-youtube-challenge-d7b5de
Thanks! I think I'll try that plank variation, I actually know someone that is having some thoracic/rib dysfunction issues that is super sensitized that I could see this helping for.
I really like the whole foundation training program.
I think there is ideological warfare going on. There are people trying to communicate the idea that being excellent is wrong, and being overweight is some sort of badge of honor. We see this education too, where some teachers and professors have stopped giving out grades. People need to fight this because it leads to a social decay.
It is something that is easier for males to contend with than females (hierarchy, that is). If there is excellence, some are, and some are not. Sometimes those who aren't can't do anything about it. This is just unacceptably sad for some people. Too sad to be true. Since our civilization has been feminized this deep concern has been amplified. I think the best way to understand this and the new dynamics we face is to listen to this discussion with Dr. Joyce Benenson as she discusses how women compete. You'll see exactly where the "being excellent is wrong" thing you mention comes from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4jKAgYL0gg
That's strange. I would have thought that physical fitness in the Army would consist of being able to carry 150 pounds of gear across a muddy battlefield, or up a hill, or across that valley.
In certain circumstances, being able to quickly use a lever to lift a jeep in order to change the tires or changing an engine.
I just assumed it also meant that you could fit your tired old body into the tank, jeep, or helicopter cockpit.
Or are all those right?
Yeah, it's complicated. Light infantry probably need to be able to do the 1st things you listed, but that's <10% of the force. It is also one of the more difficult physical capabilities required or service members. Someone who aces the new fitness test will almost assuredly be capable of handling whatever you throw at them, the previous test not so much. Some of my earliest articles here touched on that stuff. Bottom line is distance running has historically been the go to and it doesn't prep soldiers very well for modern combat (running specifically, low intensity cardio is always beneficial l, and if you're a good runner running is fine, just not enough by itself)
Didn't the army used to do PT, which was Push ups, sit ups, squats, chin ups, etc, then a 15 mile hike up curahai hill?
You're thinking of the first episode of Band of Brothers. Some people still do PT like that, but sedentary lifestyle makes it so this style of training is pretty injurious these days
That was part of where I got that idea, and a part of it was drawn from the basic fitness goals in the 80's, which the Army pushed for new recruits. We ran those in high school for two years. The push ups, the sit ups, the squats, chin ups, one mile run around the track.
None of that is bad except for the sit-ups. Speed sit-ups are objectively stupid to apply to large populations. Very few people for whom it is the best, or even a good choice.
Since this started as a discussion about physical fitness. What exercise would you recommend for the abdominals? I need to lose the spare tire.
🗨 the military [...] has been turned into a woke social-justice welfare program, a kind of student union/sociology department with guns.
Thought Michael Anton's amazeballs wit ↑↑ clearly belongs on this army green backdrop 😊
--
An afterthought: equity = undeserved rewards go to underserved 🤪
Ia that something Michael Anton said?
Yep, right within his massive black pill (which a certain Barsoomian warlord shared on Russian dezinfo channel) --> compactmag.com/article/the-pessimistic-case-for-the-future 🔥😳
PS Under the rubric Our Military Doesn’t Win (not properly formatted to link 😉). But you should read the whole thing anywhoo 😇
You write:
If some are fitter than others, this speaks to a hierarchy embedded within nature itself, a notion antithetical to their religion. This is why MSNBC and Time Magazine articles have described fitness as “far-right” and rooted in “white supremacy.”
Respectfully dissent on this first point.
To start, I know too many ex-jocks from my high school days who are already buried. One who made the Olympics, but died from a fall down the stairs in his house. He had put on considerable weight, landed badly, and asphyxiated. Died his mid-40s. Prior to the fall, his issues did not include a lack of natural talent.
But that real-life example is trivial. What does it take to become fit and stay fit?
Hard work. Self-discipline. Self-control. A sense of personal responsibility. Some ability to delay gratification. Some ability to follow a plan or program, then modify the same based on results and desired goals, then independently design a plan to program to better achieve one’s goals based on the evidence and research.
Little of which boils down to natural athletic talent.
None of this superficially would seem to have anything to do with genetic differences – biological “racial” differences -- among humans. As someone who taught exclusively African students for nearly five years in West Africa, I have former students who demonstrated all of the above qualities and more. Nearly all of whom now make far money than I ever did, btw. I have some amazingly successful former students from about 14 different nations in Africa.
It would seem fitness -- like other accomplishments --remains open to people willing to work for it, and to educate themselves. So itwould seem.
Unfortunately, in the USA, we have heard from National Museum of African American History & Culture that individualism, self-reliance, hard work, objectivity, progress, delayed gratification, a belief in cause and effect relationships, et cetera, are ASPECTS & ASSUMPTIONS of WHITENESS: https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1283372233730203651
Since this list includes the qualities needed for a person to take charge of their own health and well-being, it follows (if one accepts such madness) that a commitment to Fitness is a commitment to Whiteness and hence White Supremacy.
What’s the real target here?
Let me be perverse and argue that it is NOT primarily white people.
The current understanding is that you must surrender control – which most certainly includes bodily autonomy -- to the corporate-state along with Big Pharma, Big Med, Big Food, and Big Tech, to start.
People who practice self-reliance, who take responsibility for their own health and fitness,
and who largely cut Big Gov-Pharma-Med-Food et alia out of the picture – these people are threatening. Now being characterized as borderline domestic terrorists. Why?
First, these people have minimalized the role of Big Gov-Pharma-Med-Food et alia in their own lives. Second, the obvious success of these people in terms of health and fitness calls deeply into the question – rebukes – the various and often failing mandates, prescription regimens, and black-box healthcare as usual.
The target is anyone who does not conform, does not demonstrate subservience, does not reduce themselves to near-absolute dependency on government and quasi-governmental authorities.
My comments above single out one small part of a thoughtful and important post. My apologies in advance for making a mountain of this molehill.
Agreed entirely. I look at attacks on "whiteness" to not be so much based on race, but upon characteristics that make individuals and/or groups who adhere to the principles you outline threatening to the regime. Put more simply "whiteness" is a proxy for self-determination which must be extirpated by purported egalitarians at all costs. There are two general groups that benefit from this attack, up and coming grifters and out of their depth and incompetent managerial elite.
To comment on another aspect of what you're saying, it is an excellent point that fitness over a lifespan is a very different thing than fitness in the here and now. In order to achieve ultimate combat fitness for the most physically demanding military jobs, lifespan health and fitness is necessarily sacrificed. This is why some sort of disability compensation mechanism is very difficult to get around. The subtext of what I'm saying at the end of this article is that striving after ultimate combat fitness as measured by ACFT is probably not worth the effort and risk to lifespan health and fitness since nobody cares about it anyway. I'll go further and say they can't afford to really value and incentivize high levels of performance in any organization with females present as this becomes inherently discriminatory. This is what the only significant group difference with respect to physical fitness from my perspective. They can talk all they want about objective standards, but there is enormous pressure that ensures such standards can never be enforced.
Beautifully stated: "Put more simply "whiteness" is a proxy for self-determination which must be extirpated by purported egalitarians at all costs. There are two general groups that benefit from this attack ... "
Your "molehill" is the core issue, under the mountain that is destroying western civilization.
I meant that Grant Smith in the above makes several excellent points, and offers an outstanding insider critique. I in fact agree with him about the general denial of human nature. I'm singling out one minor claim about the MSM motives. and the White Supremacy deal.
I agree with you this is a larger attack on many of the key values and accomplishments of West Civ. I think Heather MacDonald has written wonderfully on this -- although Douglas Murray gets far more attention.
All best!